Re: tmi

["ruth_weiner" <ruth_weiner@email.msn.com>]

What was the prevailing wind direction, temperature profile, and humidity at
the time of TMI?  Knowing these, you can probably figure out the plume shape
and its footprint shape.  The phenomenon you describe is called "looping"
and occurs under very unstable meteorologic conditions -- conditions that
are very good for rapid dispersion of a pollutant.  Looping is usually
associated  with light winds, clear weather, and very strong solar heating
of the earth's surface -- I doubt if the last would have occurred in
Harrisburg in March.

The height to which a plume rises before dispersing downwind is mainly a
function of the heat  emitted and is approximately proportional to the
square root of the heat rate (joules/sec).  The heat emitted at the time of
the TMI accident was not, I believe, unusual -- that is, it was about what
that plant emitted during operation.

I believe the meteorological conditions at the time of the accident are a
matter of record, and the plume dispersion can be figured out from existing
data, if anyone cares to do it.

Ruth Weiner
ruth_weiner@msn.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Norman & Karen Cohen <norco@bellatlantic.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Tuesday, May 02, 2000 9:16 AM
Subject: tmi


>I have Mr. Lewis's permission to post this on Radsafe. You'll probably
>disagree with this posting, bit here's some thoughts from him on radiation
>dispersion after the accident. Posting this as a response to the recent
>article on TMI.
>
>peace
>norm
>
>"Marvin I. Lewis" wrote:
>
>>         Chauncey Kepford, Judith Johnsrud, Bill Lochstet and I had many
>> conversations on the wy that the radiation was dispersed around TMI. The
>> best that we could come up with was that the radiation plume went
>> straight up around the plant, then came down and 'bounced.' The plume
>> touched down at random and rose then touched down and repeated. This
>> allowed the radiations monitor reading to be 'averaged' in a manner that
>> minimized exposures using (in)appropriate assumptions. To get an accurate
>> population dosage would have taken hundreds of monitoring devices in the
>> vicinity of TMI.
>>         This is only part of the picture. Some monitors inexplicably were
>> unable to be used.(?)The data from the chemical biological radiation
>> National Guard unit helicoptering above TMI was not reported in full.
>> Personal dosimeter read high because they were not 'zeroed' before use
>> (like Jimmy Carter's). I am sorry that I cannot remember all the other
>> interesting and inexplicable things that happened with the radiation
>> monitoring.
>> marvlewis@juno.com
>> Marvin Lewis
>>
>>  --
>
>Coalition for Peace and Justice and the UNPLUG Salem Campaign; 321 Barr
Ave.,
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machine);
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>COALITION FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE WEBSITE:
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>Peace and Justice is a chapter of Peace Action.
>“We have two lives, the one we’re given, and the other one we make” (Mary
>Chapin Carpenter)
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>
>
>
>
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